Benefits of iron during pregnancy

Iron is an essential mineral in the body and it functions to help in the healthy transport of red blood cells in the bloodstream. With deficiency of this mineral, people could get sick and have a variety of symptoms including dizziness, nausea, lethargy, and irritability among many others. In the case of pregnant women, they are prone to be iron-deficient or anemic during this delicate time. Most of this is due to the fact that the pregnant mother is sharing her nutrients with her unborn child. During the pregnancy period, various health experts usually suggest iron supplementation as this could result in the following benefits:

1. Prevent infection and transmissible illnesses

Being anemic or iron-deficient means the body’s defenses against infection is also lowered. And when the immune system is compromised, it is also likely that pregnant women who are anemic will also be prone to get infected with various transmissible diseases. During pregnancy, optimum health is required for the mother in order to also ensure the health of the unborn baby and so iron supplementation may be necessary for anemic mothers.

2. Prevent infant anemia

Preventing iron-deficiency in pregnant mothers will also mean that anemia in the unborn child is also prevented. Anemic children will have the most likelihood to have various kinds of sickness and studies have also shown that iron-deficiency may also affect brain development in the unborn child. And so to prevent this from happening, pregnant mothers must ensure that they have enough iron during their entire pregnancy period.

3. Better health for mother and baby

Optimum health is desired whether a female person is pregnant or not. It is just more important during the pregnancy stage that mothers have enough supply of iron so as not to adversely affect the health of her unborn baby.

Iron supplementation should be done if necessary to make sure that the mother and her baby will stay healthy during the pregnancy. Pregnant women just need to consult with their doctors to get the benefits from this mineral and to stay away from complications and diseases.